Accommodations Tax Reserve Committee

City Council established a citizens committee to identify options and make a recommendation to city council regarding use of Accommodation Tax Reserve funds. The committee was appointed in January, 2017. It is anticipated that the committee will meet twice a month for the first six months and check in with council formally in early summer 2017. The committee will end once a final recommendation is made to council.

Committee Members

Semi-Finalists: The Committee selected three semi-finalists from the applicants and requested follow up information. See below for Answers to follow up questions and final presentations given by the applicants.

See the VIDEO of the follow up presentations on September 5, 2017 and the VIDEO of the final meeting on September 7, 2017.

Ice Arena Expansion

Old Town Hot Springs Expansion

2017 Proposals

The city issued a formal Request For Proposals for projects seeking to utilize Accommodations Tax Reserve Funds in May 2017 with applications due August 10, 2017. Proposals submitted for committee review are:

The 14 projects submitted were each excellent projects with significant benefits for the community and we thank each and every applicant for the time and energy that was spent on their application. The committee reviewed each of the 14 submitted applications and evaluated them against the 1986 ballot criteria and against the criteria described in the RFP. Based on the committee’s review and evaluation process, the following projects have been selected as semi-finalists:

Old Town Hot Springs Expansion and Renovation 2018

Multi-Purpose Facility Addition to the Ice Arena

Arnold Barn Iconic Entry Feature

Background

The 2A Accommodations Tax ballot language restricts use of the first $660,000 in Accommodation Tax dollars between 2014 and 2023 with the direction that any tax revenues in excess of the $660,000 each year may be spent at the discretion of city council on projects authorized by the 1986 public accommodations tax ballot question. These “excess” dollars are a part of the “Accommodation Tax Reserve” which is anticipated to be $1,186,000 by the end of 2017.

With agreement by City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission appointed a working group to look at options for utilization of the funds held in reserve. The working group formally recommended to both City Council and the Parks and Recreation Commission that council appoint a formal committee under the direction of City Council and apart from the Parks and Recreation Commission, to formally evaluate the options regarding use of the accommodation tax reserve funds.

In discussion, the working group identified several strategic alternatives that would need to be reviewed by the committee with a strategic direction recommendation offered to city council. These alternatives include:

Saving funds for a future big vision project, to be determined and funded later.

Identifying a large project which would require reserve funds as well as going to voters to secure ongoing funding.

Identifying one immediate project that would utilize all of the reserve funds.

Identifying multiple smaller immediate projects that would utilize all of the reserve funds.

Saving some of the funds for a future project or projects while utilizing some of the funds for one or more immediate projects.

Utilizing the funds to enhance and improve current facilities.

Based on this recommendation, City Council appointed a committee to recommend and implement a process to council, and once that process was set, to solicit, review and recommend a specific project or projects to city council.